triennial today-A - The Episcopal Church, USA
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triennial today-A - The Episcopal Church, USA
Nominees anounced; new board to be elected Tuesday News of the 43rd Triennial Meeting of the Episcopal Church Women Denver, Colorado Triennial TODAY July 8, 2000 Vol. 7, No. 4 Saturday July 8, 2000 Inside this issue: 2: Church Periodical Club: pennies and books President Cynthia S. Bartol Diocese of Virginia VP for Information Pamela G. Stewart Diocese of Long Island VP of Program Janet R. Farmer Diocese of Texas Sharon K. Hoffman Diocese of Springfield Shirley C. Hunte Diocese of Southeast Florida Assistant Treasurer Lynnette B. Frazer Diocese of Louisiana Members at Large Harriett M. Neer Diocese of Arkansas Social Justice: Mary Ann Lawing Diocese of Kansas Social Justice: Barbie Tinder Diocese of Maine Multi-Media: Susan Russell Diocese of Los Angeles Textures and tapestries: ecclesiastical art exhibit shows beauty in fabric A Jane Henning treasure trove of magnifi cent ecclesiastical art is on display in Room A111. The show exemplifies the theme of the sponsoring National Altar Guild Association, Celebrating Diversity in Altar Guild Ministry, for here you can see banners and paraments, small linens and kneelers, all manner of vestments and even a needlepoint creche of standing figures. Kathy Price, who assembled the exhibit, speaks of the coming together of an incredible amount of dedication and skill and devotion. Around 200 pieces are on view. Ecclesiastical art display, Room A-111 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. through Tuesday, July 11 Look for the centennial banner of layered and crosshatched fabric rising pinwheel fashion from a bright, stylized peacock. Nearby a heavily embroidered 19th century European fiddleback chasuble depicts the resurrection in a method called needle-painting. A Jewish woman was asked to take this chasuble for safekeeping from the advancing Nazis as she fled Europe. Delightful and unusual needlepointed cushions from San Franciscos Grace Cathedral are from a set of 150 cushions made by people from the cathedral. The vestments with an aspen leaf design are part of a 20-piece set designed and constructed by continued on page 2 July 8, 2000 TODAY at Triennial Meeting 3: Ordained women: a young priest and the first priest 8-9 a.m. Registration/Delegate Certification 9:30 a.m. GC/TM Daily Eucharist General Convention Worship Site 11 a.m. and 2:30 p.m. Workshops 4:45 p.m. Social time and Meet the Candidates Westin Hotel 6:30 p.m. Leading Edge Dinner for Women of Vision/GATES presenters Westin Hotel, Horace Tabor Room 4: A notable woman in Denver: Derby Quin Hirst Catherine Boyd photo Triennial Today / Page 1 ❖ July 8, 2000 Spreading God’s word with books and pennies I Barbara Braun n 1888, during a meeting of a guild of Episcopal Church Women in Mary Ann Fargos home in New York City, Mrs. Fargo suggested that they collect religious literature and ship it free of charge to the wild, wild, west of Wisconsin and Minnesota. And she had a shipping method to suggest: her husbands stage coach line: Wells Fargo. The women embraced the idea, thus beginning what was later named the Church Periodical Club. Over time, their shipments became larger and went farther away. The CPC story is a rich one, full of meaningful personal connections. An Alaskan prospector who was an early recipient of books showed his gratitude by sending a gold nugget to the women. The nugget was made into a pin which has been worn by CPCs current president ever since. In the 1930s Captain Raymond Lewis of the Church Army and an Episcopal nun were doing mission work in a small town in Virginia. The missionaries wrote the Church Periodical Club in New York, requesting books, and soon more than 200 books arrived. A boy who came to help unpack the books (thereby becoming interested in reading) was Earl Hammer, Jr. He grew up to write the books on which the television series The Waltons was based. In the 1940s the National Books Fund Committee was organized to meet the growing needs of overseas missionaries. The demand for more instructional materials, along with Bibles, Prayer Books and Hymnals, had gone far beyond the earlier concept. Following World War II, the national church realized the importance of the ministry and incorporated it into the national budget, leaving monetary donations free to fund grant requests. In 1970 the national church eliminated both the Church Periodical Club and United Thank Offering from its budget. United Thank Offering was able to continue, thanks to a legacy. Church Periodical Club was given an office and a staff person to be paid by donations. It was a struggle to maintain the ministry, but with dedicated people it survived. In 1991 an idea was adopted, to be used for one year, asking for pennies to be donated by the mile$844.80. The one year has stretched into nine, with 182 miles donated so far, and Miles of Pennies has a promising future. This year, a contribution was made to start an endowment fund for Miles of Pennies. The enthusiasm and dedication of legions of women, those who started this ministry of the printed word, and those who have kept it alive and helped it thrive, are continuing into CPCs second century. ❖ Ecclesiastical art display continues continued from page 1 Kathy Price of the Vestment Guild from St. Johns Cathedral, Denver. Two handsome metal-sculpted banners are mounted like standards among lovely, lightweight, dyed and painted china silk banners. Here and there are unexpected pieces such as ceramic holy water fonts, several pieces of iconic jewelry and unusual stations of the cross made of cotton applique quilting. The exhibit, titled Celebrating the Gift of Creativity, is open every day from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. through Tuesday, July 11. ❖ Above: Pam Steude photo; below: Catherine Boyd photos All former UTO Committee members are invited to the UTO office (C-202) on Tuesday, July 11 for coffee and conversation from 8 to 9 a.m. Great Meals Around Town Restaurant recommendation: Dixons on 16th Street. Meal to die for: Grilled Vegetable Tacos with black beans. Had a good meal in Denver? Drop by the Triennial Today press room (C-206) and share your recommendation. Y Triennial TODA TODAY Vol. 7, No. 4 ❖ July 8, 2000 Press Room: C206 ❖ Triennial Today / Page 2 Editor Contributors Catherine Tyndall Boyd Mary Beth Dent (Diocese of MD) Diocese of Lexington Nancy Grandfield (Diocese of CA) Assistant Editor Renee Haney (Diocese of KS) Melodie Woerman Debra Harris (Diocese of NH) Diocese of Kansas Jane Henning (Diocese of Milwaukee) Staff Photographers Carolyn Jones (Diocese of MO) Pam Steude, Diocese of Upper SC Polly Marshall (Diocese of Mississippi) Dede Dunn, Diocese of Olympia Marilyn Mason (Diocese of LA) Alice Medcof (Toronto Canada) Mary Parris (Diocese of Atlanta) Jane Porter (Diocese of Dallas) Ann Kendall Ray (Diocese of W. Tenn) Rosanne Sova (Diocese of Wyoming) Louise Horner (Diocese of West Missouri) July 8, 2000 Priest suggests nourishment Chaplains Message by food and each other Jesus said, “I chose this” S Renee Haney haring meals wont solve all our problems, but it might be a first step toward simply slowing down, paying attention, and letting ourselves be nourishednot just by food, but by each other. This is part of one of the meditations written by the Rev. Beth Maynard in the newly released cookbook, The Bread of Life, A Cookbook for Body and Soul. The cookbook was produced by the Episcopal Church Women and published by Morehouse Publishing. It is a compilation of the best of ECW-published recipes submitted from hundreds of parish cookbooks across the country. Maynard was working on another book when she was approached about writing meditations for the cookbook. She quickly agreed. I spent time thinking about memories of shared meals and images of cooking that had been meaningful to me. She loves cooking and is looking forward to trying the recipes, although she had not seen them prior to writing the meditations. Maynard grew up in Tennessee unchurched and became an Episcopalian before college. She says, I started looking for God and Jesus found me. She was drawn to the Episcopal Church, Carolyn G. Jones I Pam Steude photo she said, because of the liturgy. She currently serves in a shared ministry as rector of Good Shepherd, Fairhaven, Mass. and assistant at St. Gabriels in Marion, Mass. She also is active with the neXt Generation, an association of young clergy. In one of her meditations she writes, When we build community at our tables, we lose something if the hospitality is limited to our friends alone. And we lose even more if the motivation is limited to what we ourselves will get out of the event. Take the risk; set a place, somehow, for the outcast and the unlikely. This is the way of Jesus; not to give and welcome because of what we get out of it, but because giving and welcoming is built into the very life of God. ❖ New center honors 1st woman ordained in Anglican Communion W Alice Medcof hen an English missionary, speaking in Hong Kong, asked, Is there no Chinese woman who will work as a deaconess for God? Li Tim-Oi said, Yes, I will. And so began a life of treading a path never before walked by a woman. She went to theological college, was ordained a deaconess and was posted to Macau to serve Anglican Chinese refugees. Within four years all priests had left the Japanese-occupied Macau. Bishop Ronald Hall sent a message to Tim-Oi, seeking her to meet him at a halfway point. The dangerous journey, through enemy lines, took several days. After a night of prayer, Hall was convinced God was calling Tim-Oi to the priesthood. On Jan. 25, 1944 she was ordained a priest. After World War II, and in response to church pressure, TimOi graciously relinquished her title and role of priest, but she continued to work faithfully in very challenging conditions. She said, I had always wanted to serve where no one else would go. To honor her life and work, the Rev. Florence Li Tim-Oi Center is being created at Renison College, the Anglican College at the University of Wateloo in Canada. A reading room, archives and global Internet access to womens writing and scholarship are planned. For more information on this project, contact Dr. Gail Cuthbert Brandt, principal of Renison College at <gcbrandt@ denison.uwaterloo.ca.> ❖ like so many people, have been drawn to the movie Saving Private Ryan, probably the most powerful movie I have seen in years. I saw it in the theatre, bought the tape as soon as it was released and now have the DVD, with all the horrors of Omaha Beach coming out (in surround sound) in my home. You know the story. After surviving Omaha Beach, Capt. John Miller (Tom Hanks) and his squad of Rangers are given the assignment of saving Pvt. James Francis Ryan of Iowa (who has bought a ticket home because all three of his brothers were killed in action). They trek across Normandy in search of Ryan losing men, one by one, in various skirmishes. Once they find Ryan, he refuses to go, choosing to stay with his ragtag band of soldiers (who have hooked up to defend a bridge). The Rangers decided to stay and fight, believing, as Capt. Miller says, it just might earn them a ticket home. The fight is gory, hard and devastating, and almost everyone dies. At the end, as they prepare to blow up the bridge before the Germans cross it, Capt. Miller is shot and, as he dies, he whispers to Pvt. Ryan, Earn this. The initial time you see the movie, you can not understand Capt. Miller when he first says this. Almost everyone male and female is crying (because it is Tom Hanks who is dying? The incredible power of the movie? The realism? Who knows.) Capt. Miller repeats his comment and now one can hear him clearly: Earn this. It becomes clear, at the end of the movie, that Ryan has agonized about this responsibility through his adult life. He has borne the burden of whether or not he has earned what all those seven lives bought for him. Every time I watch the movie, I am bothered by this last scene. Tom Allen, pastor of Grace Church, Seattle, a former Ranger himself, wrote that the Ranger motto for the past 200 years is not Earn this but Sua sponte, I chose this. A Rangers non-cinematic response would be I chose this. This is free. You do not have to pay for this. I give up my life for you. That is my job. As Christians, when we stand before the cross, the words whispered to us are not Earn this. Instead, we see Jesus there, dying a slow, painful death and, what he says to us is Sua sponte. I chose this. This is for you. You do not have to pay for this. We do not have to agonize about it: we are saved by the blood of Jesus. It is free. We could not pay, even if we wanted to do so. This is Gods work, his gift to us. This is our joy. “He escogido esto” Y o, como tantos otros, he sentido la atracción de la película Saving Private Ryan (A salvar al soldado Ryan), la película más potente que he visto en los últimos años. La vi en el teatro, compré el vídeo tan pronto como apareció, y ahora tengo el DVD (videodisco digital), con todos los horrores de la Playa Omaha saliendo en sonido omnidireccional, dentro de mi hogar. Ustedes ya saben el argumento: habiendo sobrevivido los peligros de la Playa Omaha, al capitán John Miller (Tom Hanks) y su brigada de Rangers se les da la misión de salvar al soldado James Francis Ryan, de Iowa, quien ha comprado un boleto para volver a su patria porque todos sus tres hermanos han fallecido en el campo de batalla. Viajan por la Normandía en busca de Ryan perdiendo hombres, uno por uno, en sendas batallas. Cuando encuentran a Ryan, se niega a partir, prefiriendo quedarse con su banda desorganizada de soldados que se han reunido para defender un puente. La Brigada decidió quedarse y luchar, creyendo, como lo dice el Capitán Miller, que podrá acaso valerles un boleto a la patria. La batalla es sangrienta, difícil, desastrosa, y casi todo el mundo muere. Por fin, en el momento en que van a hacer estallar el puente antes de que lo atraviesen los alemanes, el capitán Miller recibe una bala y, al morir, susurra a Ryan, Merece esto. La primera vez que uno ve la película, no entiende al Capitán Miller cuando lo dice. Casi todos, hombres y mujeres, está llorando (¿porque es Tom Hanks que muere? ¿la increíble fuerza de la película? ¿el realismo? ¿Quién sabe?) El capitán repite la frase y ahora se le oye claramente, Merece esto. Está claro, al fin de la película, que Ryan ha pasado el resto de la vida atormentándose sobre esta responsabilidad. Ha cargado la duda de que sí o no ha merecido lo que le compraron todas estas siete vidas. Cada vez que veo la película, me preocupa esta última escena. Tom Allen, pastor de la Iglesia de la Gracia en Seattle y antiguo Ranger él mismo, ha dicho que el lema de los Rangers durante 200 años ha sido, no Merece esto, sino Sua sponte, He escogido esto. La auténtica respuesta de un Ronger habría sido, He escogido esto. Es Gratis. No tienes que pagarlo. Doy mi vida para ti. Para esto estoy aquí. A nosotros los cristianos, parados frente a la Cruz, las palabras susurradas no son Merece esto. Al contrario, vemos allí a Jesús, sufriendo una muerte lenta y dolorosa, y lo que nos dice es, Sua sponte, Escogí esto. Es para ti. No tienes que pagarlo. No tenemos ni siquiera que atormentarnos: somos salvados por la sangre de Jesús. Es gratis. No lo podríamos pagar, aunque quisiéramos hacerlo. Para esto está Dios; es su regalo para nosotros. Este es nuestro gozo. ❖ Triennial Today / Page 3 ❖ A Notable Woman in Denver July 8, 2000 Derby Quin Hirst: 90 years of General Conventions Canon Susan Heath of Trinity Cathedral, Columbia, S.C. pays a visit to Derby Quin Hirsts table in the Convention worship area. I Mary Beth Dent n 1910 a four-month-old Derby Quin attended her first General Convention. She traveled to Cincinnati with her father, the Rev. Clinton S. Quin, who was a deputy. Now visiting the 73rd General Convention, Derby Quin Hirst says, The General Convention and the Episcopal Church are such a great part of my life. I just feel so at home here. Since her early General Convention experience, Mrs. Hirst estimates she has been a part of 20 General Conventions. In 1916 she, her two sisters and their maid accompanied her parents to the General Convention in St. Louis where they stayed in a rented top-floor room in a boarding house for the duration of the Convention. In 1918 her father became Bishop of Texas and served until 1955; she was a part of the Quin family entourage to General Conventions thereafter. Bishop Quin served on the original Forward Movement Committee, and Mrs. Hirst remembers that her mother also was very active in Conventions. She has followed the family tradition. ❖ Triennial Today / Page 4 In 1925 she attended the General Convention in New Orleans as a youth representative from the Diocese of Texas. In 1943 in Cleveland, Ohio she was an ECW delegate to the national board meeting of the Episcopal Church Women. One of Mrs. Hirsts most memorable ECW national board meetings was 1946 in Philadelphia where she was a delegate. Her mother, Hortense Quin, was the Presiding Officer of the National Executive Board of the Episcopal Church Women, presiding over that Triennial Meeting. She remembers clearly the excitement over the fantastic hats worn by the parliamentarian each day. Mrs. Hirst also has represented West Texas and Southern Ohio as an ECW delegate over the years. In 1928, now married to the Rev. Penrose Hirst, she went to the Berkeley campus of the University of California with her chaplain husband. She recalls that the Berkeley campus has not changed in spirit over the years. Pam Steude photos For most of her life, as the daughter and then the wife of clergymen, Mrs. Hirst never had to make a decision about her parish home. She now lives in a lifecare community near Annapolis, Maryland, where she has made certain there is a weekly Eucharist for 30 Change is to 35 residents inevitable but there. She has growth is taken responoptional. sibility for lining up clergy and Derby Quin ensuring the Hirst chapel is ready each week. She also attends Regional Council meetings and visits parishes in the area as transportation is available. One of the changes in the General Convention format of which Mrs. Hirst approves is the recent practice of beginning each day with study, reflection and Eucharist. This is the way the church should do business, she said. General Convention gives me a sense of the church, she said, and she sees her trip here as a Jubilee experience, an opportunity to have the grace to let go. She believes that change is inevitable but growth is optional, therefore the church needs to get on with the business of inclusiveness and ministries to the poor and needy. ❖